Rashford’s 15th-minute strike – a fifth goal in eight appearances – proved the winner as United closed to within a point of City, who have 51 and occupy the final Champions League berth.

Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

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West Ham United also have 50 points and are ahead of United in fifth place on goal difference. City have taken only seven points from their last seven matches and Jesse Lingard revealed how Van Gaal and Rashford reacted to a win that may prove pivotal with all three clubs having eight matches remaining.

“The manager was buzzing. But obviously we know it is not like it is the last game of the season, we have to kick on now and focus on beating Everton,” said the forward of United’s next game, which follows the international break. “It is a massive win, the lads put a lot of effort in, we pressed really well and kept the ball really well. To get the early goal was massive for us.

“It is definitely a massive boost. But we have got to take it game by game still. We have gameplans for set teams and when we stick to them we usually win. Everyone will be relaxed when they come back and then we can focus on Everton. It is interesting now [the race for fourth] but we have to take it game by game, get our recovery, get our rest and go again.”

Rashford’s impressive goal, in which he raced past Martín Demichelis before beating Joe Hart, is the latest indicator he may become a fixture in the first team.

Lingard said Rashford felt the same emotion as his manager. “Yeah, he is buzzing but I was keeping him grounded. He is already grounded anyway to be fair, and has his feet on the ground. He is looking forward to the rest of his career now,” he said.

Rashford was also denied a first-half penalty when Demichelis barged him to the ground in the area. This led to an argument between the pair in which Fernandinho became involved. Lingard stepped in to protect Rashford. “I had to back him up and look after the young lads,” he said. “But I thought it was a penalty as well.”

This was Lingard’s first derby at the Etihad Stadium and he admitted they had targeted City’s veteran Argentina defender in the absence of captain Vincent Kompany. “It was good,” he said. “I came on earlier in the season against them [at Old Trafford] and they are a difficult side to play against because they keep the ball very well. But we exploited their weaknesses and we came away with the goal. We knew [Demichelis] was one of their weaknesses, with Marcus’s pace running in behind and he has got his reward for it as well.

“It was a massive win. We’ve had two massive games this week and I thought we could have come away with a better result against Liverpool but coming here we had to stick to the gameplan, focus on what we had to do and it was great that we got the goal.”